Hi everyone, I’m Tamlyn (known on Instagram and YouTube as ‘Sewn on the Tyne’) and I’m delighted to be back on the Lamazi Fabrics blog today.
As soon as the mind the MAKER fabric collection was released, it caught my eye. They are a Denmark-based company that design high-quality fabrics, both plain basics and more fashion-based prints, with the maker in mind (hence the name!)
I love the colour schemes they use in their designs, so I was thrilled when Liana suggested sending me one of the chevron quilt knit fabrics for a blog post. This organic double knit fabric is 160cm wide, meaning you need less length for your project, and it comes in a range of stunning colours. I opted for the ‘Bordeaux’ shade, as it is a favourite colour of mine.
When the fabric arrived, I was so impressed by the quality of it and I knew I wanted to make a sweater or cardigan with it. I loved the sweater dress that Janet made with the navy version of this fabric (read the blog post here), however I decided to go for the Megan Nielsen Jarrah sweater as I thought it would be perfect to accommodate my growing baby bump!
The Jarrah is a loose fit, drop shoulder sweater that comes with a variety of neckline, sleeve and hem options. I’ve made a couple of versions before and love them. They come together really quickly and the style suits me. This time, I decided to go for the crew neck, cuff sleeves and waist tie – I love the tie detail as I feel it elevates it to a more ‘smart’ sweater.
After pre-washing and drying the fabric, I cut it out using a rotary cutter. This was a breeze – the fabric didn’t move around at all, with just a few pattern weights to hold it in place. I cut out a straight size 10 but extended the length at the lengthen/shorten lines by an inch. The style of this garment is quite cropped, so you may want to consider lengthening it too if you prefer a longer hem line.
Before sewing, I tested the fabric on both my sewing machine and overlocker to check which needles and stitch settings worked best. I would definitely recommend taking a few minutes to do this before starting on your actual garment.
On my sewing machine, I used a Klasse Stretch needle, grade 90, with Gutterman all-purpose thread (Shade 512). For my overlocker I used four different shades of maroon/purple thread and didn’t have to change any of the settings from the standard set up.
I constructed the whole sweater on my overlocker until the hem. I finished the raw edge with the overlocker but then turned up and top stitched the hem using my sewing machine. I used a straight stitch for this as I knew this area wouldn’t require to be stretched during wear (If it were to be stretched, I would have used a zig-zag or stretch stitch to prevent snapping the threads).
To achieve a neat finish on the tie detail, I followed the excellent instructions on Megan Nielsen’s blog (You can find this here).
I am so happy with my finished garment and have worn it so many times since I finished. It’s such a satisfying and quick sew, suitable for sewists of all levels and Lamazi have many fabrics that would be perfect for it. I already have my eye on the chevron quilt fabric in a different colourway (See the range here) to make this sweater again – that shows how much I love it!
Thank you for reading my blog post and I hope I’ve inspired you with my make. Keep an eye out on my YouTube channel as I will be posting a video soon about how to sew with double knit fabrics, including this project.
Happy sewing,
Love Tamlyn xx